Side Stories
by shanejayell
Summary: In the universe of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, there are many untold tales....
1. Chapter 1

Battle Maid Noel!

There were things that head maid Noel K. Ehrlichkeit didn't tell the family that she watched over, the Tsukimuras. It wasn't that she wanted to decieve them or anything, it was just that telling them certain things would be... unduly complicated. Unlike Miss Suzuka, Noel had been aware of Miss Nanoha's transformation to a magical girl as well as her chasing after the Jewel Seeds. How did she know? Well, that was the complicated part....

Her dark purple hair shimmering Noel leapt through the tree branches, her maid's uniform swirling around her long legs. A black dress with white apron and matching hat didn't normally lend itself to bounding from branch to branch, but a good maid learned to cope with these things. She alighted on a fairly sturdy branch, hidden in shadows as she saw the source of the disturbance she sensed on her master's property.

A young man with dark purple hair raised a mysterious staff, his eyes narrowed as the creature growled at him. In fact as Noel got a good look at him she realized he was barely a boy, not much older than Miss Suzuka, and worse it seemed the beast had him at a disadvantage. It was large and muscular, it's lizard like body twisting about as it circled the boy like a hungry predator.

With a hiss it lunged at the boy as he leapt with unusual speed, the stange staff he carried flaring with energy. "Blaze cannon!" the staff itself called in a mechanical voice as it fired off a powerful blast, sadly missing the creature.

The beast seized the change and dove at the boy even as Noel moved. 'The master would surely not approve this,' she thought grimly as she leapt, twisting in midair.

"What the...?" the boy looked stunned as he saw her flying through the air.

With long practiced skill Noel delived a two footed kick to the beasts head, sending it reeling. Bounding away she leapt off a tree trunk and landed gently at the boy's side, her skirts settling gracefully around her. "Are you all right, sir?" she asked politely even as she kept a eye on the monster.

"Ah... I'm fine, miss," he blinked at her, trying to gather his thoughts. "I'm Chrono Harlaown, Time Space Administration Bureau."

"Noel K. Ehrlichkeit," she curtsied slightly as she continued, "the Tsukimura's family head maid."

"Maid?" Chrono echoed, his expression showing he was having some difficulty grasping that.

"What is this thing?" Noel asked, watching warily as the beast shrugged off the blow, rising once more.

Chrono shook himself, getting back on track. "It's a creature that was transformed by a Jewel Seed," he explained, "I need to subdue the beast before I can reverse the change."

"I see," Noel nodded as she produced a simple duster from her dress, twisting the handle so that it telescoped into a battle staff. "Then I will subdue it so that you may change it back."

"Are you sure you can...?" Chrono had to ask.

Not answering Noel charged at the beast, leaping as it tried to lunge at her. With deadly precision she struck it on the back of the head, sending it sprawling. Using careful strikes she disabled it's joints while it was stunned, leaving it flailing uselessly on the turf.

"If you would, Mister Chrono?" Noel gave him a polite nod.

"Yes, ma'am," Chrono nodded with profund respect. Raising his staff he called out, "Sealing mode!" Within a few moments the gem the boy called a Jewel Seed was sucked into his staff, the monster reverting to a stunned looking garden lizard that staggered off into the brush.

"Poor thing," Noel noted mildly.

"Ah, Miss Ehrlichkeit," Chrono started.

She smiled as she said, "Just Noel, please."

"Noel," Chrono smiled, "I hate to ask, but could you not tell anyone about this? I could get into trouble if it became commonly known."

"You may rely on my discression," Noel nodded, "and I hope you'll be equally descrete about my own activities."

"Thank you, I will," Chrono agreed.

Taking a descrete look at her watch Noel's eyes widened. "If you'll excuse me, I really must be going," she said apologetically, "I have duties I must attend to."

With a swirl of her skirts she was gone, Noel racing through the trees with unerring skill. Arriving back at the house she straightened her hair and made sure her skirt and apron then headed into the house. At precisely the right time she put on the water, then finished up her preperations.

"Is the tea ready?" Suzuka Tsukimura asked, smiling her usual sweet smile.

"Yes ma'am," Noel smiled, relieved that the mild disruption had not disrupted afternoon tea.

End

Notes: Absolutely not canon, totally a product of my imagination. I'm tempted to do a series of short fics revealing that EVERYONE of the background characters in the Nanoha-verse has a secret life of some kind, if only because the idea amuses me. ^_~ We'll see how inspired I get.


	2. Arisa Bannings

Arisa Bannings: Mech Warrior

When young people grow up, they often get a certain talk from their parents. Some hear about the birds and the bees, others get a much franker talk. Arisa Bannings, on the other hand, found out from her parents that she was a mechanical entity, not a human being. She... didn't take it well.

Arisa's orange-blonde fell around her face as she snarled in anger, her bare fist shattering another boulder in one powerful blow. Her normally neat clothes were torn and stained, her cheek smudged by dirt. She staggered to a stop in the rubble on her parent's property, her simulated breath coming a bit harder than normal.

The soft whine of one of her many dogs drew Arisa's attention from her troubles, and she looked over to where it watched her worriedly. She relaxed a little as she walked over, flopping down as she carefully stroked the puppy.

"Sorry I worried you," Arisa sighed, looking out over the property. The puppy gently rubbed against her leg, trying to comfort her even though it didn't understand what was wrong.

According to her parents the 'real' Arisa had been born with crippling defects that would have killed her. After her brain had developed sufficiently it was transplanted to this artificial body, kept alive in a nutrient solution as it grew and she got 'older.' Now she also understood the medical visits every few months, the scientists must have been gradually modifying her body so that she'd appear to age along with her friends.

'Do I keep it a secret from Suzuka, Nanoha and the others?' Arisa wondered as she carefully teased the pup's fur with her fingers. On one hand she knew the doctors could continue the illusion that she was human forever, but on the other hand she felt uncomfortable with lying to them. 'Not that I knew until now,' she mused.

Getting up with the puppy Arisa walked back to the house, nodding to a surprised servant as she went in. "Ah," he said mildly, "would madam like a change of clothes?"

"Yes, please," Arisa nodded, "send up my usual walking clothes."

Not long afterward she was walking along the street, her long hair cleaned up once more and dressed in a fresh set of clothes. She tried to imagine her friends' reactions to her change, but her imagination wouldn't go that far. She kept being hung up on the moment of telling, imagining the fear and horror on their faces....

'No,' Arisa told herself firmly, 'they won't react like that.' Still, she felt a pang of fear imagining Suzuka's terror filled glance....

Arisa was so caught up in her thoughts she was unaware of her being followed. The old sedan paced her as she left the safety of her parents compound, the passengers waiting for just the right time to strike and seize their prey.

"So that's the Bannings kid?" the driver hissed. "Looks just like the photo we got," he noted, his short black hair swept back from his face.

"Yup, we grab her we're on easy street for life," his passenger agreed, his own brown hair messy and falling into his eyes. He was a big, bulky man, chosen to be the muscle of the team rather than it's brain. Still he was smart enough to ask, "Where's her security?"

"Dunno," the driver leaned onto the steering wheel as he thought, "Maybe she sent 'em away?"

"That'd be pretty dumb," the other man offered.

"Bein' rich don't stop ya from doing dumb stuff," the driver offered. He looked at the other man, "You ready for this?"

"Let's do it," the big man said confidently, 'before someone else shows up."

The engine revved up and the sedan lurched forward, racing up the street towards where Arisa walked. Arisa yelped as the car swung in front of her, the passenger side door popped open and the big man grabbed at her.

"Hey!" Arisa yelled as she was hauled into the care, the tires squealing as they raced off down the street.

"Hey, she's heavy," the passenger grunted as Arisa struggled in his grip.

"Don't struggle!" the driver ordered harshly as they sped away, "Or we'll have to cut you!"

Arisa hesitated, then relaxed as something occurred to her. 'I don't have to be afraid of them,' she realized. Short of their bashing her brains out there wasn't much permanent harm that could be done to her body, now.

"Hey, she calmed down," the bruiser noted cheerfully.

Deciding that was her cue Arisa sat up in the man's lap and head butted him, hard. Grinning savagely she then kicked out at the driver, hearing a satisfying crack as she slammed a foot into his arm and in the process sending the car spinning out of control.

"Shit!" the driver howled as he scrambled to grab the wheel one handed. "Get her under control!" he yelled.

"I'm trying!" his partner yelped, blood running down his face as Arisa fought like a wildcat.

'This is fun!' Arisa thought, still grinning as she socked him in the face. Deciding to make things even tougher on the driver she slammed her heel against the front window, sending cracks across the glass and making it even harder to navigate.

With a screech of tires the car fishtailed then after struggling with the wheel a moment they ran up the sidewalk nd slowed before ramming into a tree. "Oh crap," the driver groaned, the old airbag having deployed and covered his face.

Delivering another punch Arisa forced the passenger door open and got out, still feeling a buzz of excitement. She swiftly dialed her cellphone even as she kept an eye on the dazed men. Calling home she smiled, "Yes, it's me. There's been an attempted abduction, could you send someone to pick me up?"

"WHAT?!" the maid yelped.

Arisa fought back a laugh, "I'm fine, but we should detain these gentlemen and find out what their motive was."

Struggling out of the car the driver shook his head dazedly. "Damn it," he cursed as he ran at Arisa, "I'm not done yet!"

"You really don't want to do this," Arisa warned.

Not heeding her he grabbed at her arm. "Got you!" he crowed.

Without thinking about it Arisa shifted her stance, twisted her hips and calmly threw him over her shoulder then down to the dirt with a bone rattling impact. As he gasped breathlessly she pulled her arm free, moved over him and pinned him down with a knee to his chest.

"Glick!" he gasped incoherently.

"Stay still like a good little kidnapper," Arisa ordered calmly even as she heard more vehicles coming, "and I won't have to hurt you."

"Yes, ma'am," he muttered weakly, deciding that whatever this girl was, he did NOT want to mess with her again.

Not long after the Bannings security people arrived, and later they sent for the police after determining the kidnappers really were just hoods looking to make a big score. The security team were themselves highly apologetic: apparently one shift was going off as Arisa left home, and the next was a few minutes slow coming on. Arisa forgave them, of course, but suspected they'd be extra vigilant for awhile anyway.

"Miss," Helen, one of the ladies on her security team and a attractive redhead, asked respectfully, "We'd prefer if you'd allow us to handle any more kidnappers."

"I'll try," Arisa smiled as she admitted, "but now that I know how much fun it can be, it'll be hard to hold back."

Helen smiled shyly, "Please try to, Miss Arisa. We'd we worrying about you otherwise."

Arisa looked up at Helen, surprised to see the older woman blushing slightly. "I'll try," she promised thoughtfully.

"Thank you," Helen bowed and hurried off to her duties, unaware of Arisa studying her as she walked away.

To be continued....

Notes: I had originally planned a 'Triangle Heart' like version of Arisa, but I've seen several Arisa as a ghost fics. It occurred to me a cyborg Arisa might be interesting to do, especially if I eventually cross over into 'regular' Nanoha fanfiction.


End file.
